Jake Staiano was suspended from PGA Tour-sanctioned competition for three months, and was the first player to discuss his violation on Ryan French’s Any Given Monday podcast earlier this week.
Vince India was the other pro who got suspended. He’s banned from competing in any PGA Tour-sanctioned event for six months, from Sept. 18 through March 17, 2024.
India, 34, has played in 176 events during his career on the Korn Ferry Tour. This season he made 22 starts, missed 11 cuts and withdrew from one event. His best result was a pair of T-21 finishes. His total career earnings are $662,823.
He posted an apology on social media on Tuesday, admitting he knowingly violated the Tour’s Integrity Program.
The Tour should remember that in any enterprise trust is underpinned by transparency. The more of it, the better.
Vince India and Jake Staiano can testify that the PGA Tour’s new era of transparency extends beyond installing glass walls in its ‘Global Home’ headquarters. They’re the Korn Ferry Tour players suspended on Oct. 27 for betting on Tour events, though none in which they competed. That the Tour acknowledged the sanctions — and actually announced them — is a welcome departure from the time when disciplinary action was guarded with a secrecy worthy of Dear Leader’s cholesterol in a banana republic.
Still, the announcement itself was a reminder that promises of transparency are not unlike poker — eventually you have to go all-in. And the Tour just ain’t there yet.
Like every league eager to profit from legalized sports betting, the PGA Tour is open to charges of hypocrisy by people who think in binaries. While there’s no ambiguity in the Tour’s Integrity Program Manual prohibiting members from gambling on professional tournaments, the organization’s official partners include bet365, BetMGM, betParx, DraftKings, Fanduel and PointsBet — abuse of which might lead one to their other partners offering beer, vodka and tequila. Yet it’s necessary to distinguish commerce from common sense. No sports league can permit wagering by those with access to inside information that might impact a competitor’s performance — injury, illness, an untimely meeting of spouse and lover — or by those with the ability, however slight, to influence outcomes. That’s why the Integrity Program ban extends to anyone who obtains credentials to an event through a player, like caddies, agents, family members or trainers.
It’s clear-cut on paper, but awfully difficult to enforce. I asked one player how common it is for his peers to gamble on tournaments, regardless of whether they are competing themselves.
“Rare,” he replied.
How about caddies?
He laughed. “All they do is bet.”
A sweeping judgment? Perhaps. So I asked a caddie.
“So many do it,” he said. “On the events they are in.”
It’s unsurprising that the ban on betting is routinely flouted, but uneven enforcement doesn’t render the policy problematic, any more than DUI laws are undermined by the fact that many offenders get away with it. What is questionable is a lack of context in announcing violations.
On Oct. 11, the Tour made public that Ben An had been suspended three months for violating anti-doping policies. Its statement noted that the banned substance in question was contained in a cough medicine available over the counter in An’s native Korea. Breaches of anti-doping regulations come with the potential for significant reputational harm, so context is crucial. The same applies to charges of gambling on one’s own sport, but India and Staiano were not granted the courtesy of context, other than a one-line acknowledgment that they didn’t bet on tournaments in which they participated.
In one respect, that makes sense. An’s offense was accidental whereas the gambling was intentional. But the suspensions imposed on India (six months) and Staiano (three months) were presumably dictated by the particulars of their respective offenses, and the onus is on the Tour to explain how those penalties were reached. What events were wagered on? In what amounts? Was there a pattern or was it a one-off after a couple of beers? How did the rule breaches come to light? Instead, the Tour noted only the imposition of the suspensions, that there was no betting on events in which the men competed, and the duration of their benchings. It concluded with a phrase cut and pasted from the statement on An 16 days earlier: “The Tour will have no further comment on the suspensions at this time.”
It’s akin to declaring a man guilty and sentenced without presenting interested parties with a glimpse of the evidence, a judicial approach that at least won’t cost the Tour any goodwill with its new business partner in Riyadh. The “no further comment” dodge amounts to an abdication of obligation.
An wasn’t put in the position of having to offer context for his suspension — the Tour did it for him by explaining how he came to use a banned substance. It should not be left to India and Staiano to provide context that explains or seeks to excuse their actions. They violated rules and earned their penalties, that is clear. And while it should be welcomed that the PGA Tour is finally telling fans when such episodes occur, telling us exactly how it happened matters too.
The Tour’s statements on An, India and Staiano represent progress for an organization that historically appreciates sunlight about as much as vampires, but it’s not sufficient. Trust is a scarce commodity in the PGA Tour’s orbit right now. The suits in that glass-walled Global Home would do well to remember that in any enterprise trust is underpinned by transparency. The more of it, the better.
DraftKings and the PGA Tour are calling this a “first-of-its-kind partnership”.
Ten months after breaking ground, the DraftKings Sportsbook at TPC Scottsdale is ready for its grand opening.
Former Arizona Cardinals receiver and avid golfer Larry Fitzgerald will make the ceremonial first bet on Thursday, Oct. 19, which is also when they’ll hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The sportsbook opens to the public on Oct. 20 at 10 a.m.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was at the groundbreaking last December. He said there was a time when he couldn’t envision a sportsbook opening at the site of one of the Tour’s venues but admitted if he had, “this would have been the location I would have said.”
Well, now it’s a reality, this first-of-its-kind partnership between DraftKings and the PGA Tour. The 13,000-square-foot venue is about a 5-iron away from the TPC Scottsdale clubhouse. The sea of fans that descend on the WM Phoenix Open next February won’t have a difficult time finding the place.
There will be 40 betting kiosks, seven ticket windows and 3,400-square feet of video walls showing that day’s sports action. There’s also a dining area and a huge sports bar that opens up to a patio with cabanas and firepits.
Ron Price, COO of the PGA Tour, and Jennifer Aguiar, DraftKings Chief Compliance Officer, are scheduled to be in attendance along with Fitzgerald. Former ESPN personality Mike Golic will emcee the event.
TPC Scottsdale will soon be home to a 12,000 square foot in-person sportsbook.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Five years ago, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan estimates, he would not have been able to envision opening a sportsbook at the site of one of his tour’s 48 annual tournaments. If he had, though, he would have known where it would be.
“This would have been the location I would have said,” Monahan said, standing at a barren construction site at the corner of Hayden Loop and Bell Road in Scottsdale. For years, this plot of land has served as the entrance to TPC Scottsdale, home of the WM Phoenix Open. In the fall of 2023, it will become home to a 12,000 square foot in-person sportsbook. On Monday, Monahan was on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony.
“We know this will elevate the peoples’ open to a new level,” Monahan said, moments after a ceremonial photo op with DraftKings CEO Jason Robins and Scottsdale mayor David Ortega.
The sportsbook, which DraftKings estimates will provide 100 to 120 jobs, will be the first at a PGA Tour site.
A rendering of the new TPC Scottsdale DraftKings sportsbook. (Photo: PGA Tour)
On the surface, it seems like an unusual arrangement. Since sports betting began to be legalized in states across the country in 2018, companies like DraftKings and FanDuel have exploded in popularity due to the ease of access — bettors can place wagers at home, on mobile apps, in seconds. Arizona is among states that legalized the form of sports betting and also allows opening sports books at established sports venues. Since then, sports books have opened at Footprint Center, home of the Phoenix Suns, and adjacent to Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
At the Phoenix Open, fans can bet on their phones while watching action, standing in line for beer or going to the bathroom. The notion that they will seek out an in-person sportsbook is antithetical to that accessibility. With this location, DraftKings is betting on a different type of consumer.
“When you think about the experience of going in a venue and everybody’s cheering and watching on screens and you’re betting while watching, it’s an amazing experience,” DraftKings chief business officer Ezra Kucharz said. “With a company like ours, you can choose to have an experience where you sit on your couch on your phone or you can come to a venue where there’s a lot more people and you can feed off the energy. … That’s why we do these things.”
Robins added that a brick-and-mortar location could be more appealing to tourists from locations where sports betting is not legal and who may not have the app on their phones.
For the PGA Tour and the city of Scottsdale, the bet is more certain. Regardless of the location’s success, they will receive money from DraftKings as part of the arrangement.
Already, though, the PGA Tour has benefited massively from the sports betting boom.
“When you look at legalized sports betting, we’re seeing more engagement (in legal markets),” Monahan said. “So when we look at our network broadcasts, our cable broadcasts, our social media platforms. The amount of time that people are spending researching play, researching what’s happening what’s happening in the field of play, researching historical data. There’s a level of intelligence that’s coming into our sport, a level of understanding that’s probably far greater now than it was five years ago.”
The catch, of course, is in the PGA Tour’s ultimate contradiction. As he stood in a makeshift gazebo plastered with DraftKings’ logo, chatting with the company’s top executives, Monahan was asked whether PGA Tour players, caddies and executives are allowed to have the DraftKings’ app on their phones. His answer was as brief as it was obvious: “No.”
The freight train that is sport betting, though, isn’t stopping anytime soon. Although he said the PGA Tour doesn’t have explicit plans for another brick-and-mortar sportsbook at one of its courses, Monahan added that he thinks the TPC Scottsdale location could provide a blueprint for replicas elsewhere.
“We’ll take the findings here and as opportunities present themselves, we’ll consider them,” Monahan said. “But this is unique. TPC Scottsdale, the WM Phoenix Open, this is not just unique in golf, it’s unique in all of sports. That’s what makes this the perfect opportunity for the first one.”
Have you ever placed a bet that you thought was a winner only to find out the bet you actually placed was slightly different? If not, you haven’t been betting long enough. Don’t worry, it’ll happen to you some day too — just maybe not to this extent.
Last Wednesday, a golf bettor put $75 on Cameron Smith to win the Open at +1998 odds – which Smith did on Sunday. The only problem is the bet was actually for the 2023 U.S. Open instead of the 2022 British Open.
Wrong year. Wrong major.
You can imagine what Twitter user “AZ” felt when he opened his sportsbook app to see an unchanged balance rather than the extra $1,498.50 he thought he’d won. Agony.
Now, this is a little different than, say, accidentally betting the over in a game that you know is going to fall under. That’s an honest slip-up; those buttons are typically right next to each other. AZ’s mistake was one of negligence on his part. The ticket clearly says US Open 2023. Even if he mixed up The Open and U.S. Open — which I can see happening for casual followers of golf — the year should have been a red flag.
And though his ticket is still active and has a chance to be a winner, he’ll be banking on a golfer who hadn’t previously won a major to get another in less than a year’s time. Smith missed the cut at this year’s U.S. Open.
All I can say is pay a little more attention y’all.
The lowest Open Championship debut round in the modern era.
After a third place finish at the PGA Championship a couple months ago, Cameron Young might have been on the radar of bettors this week at The Open Championship. But the events that followed tempered any expectations for the 25-year-old to compete for his first major championship.
He missed the cut in each of his last two events, including the U.S. Open last month, following an 84 in the final round of the Memorial. So, he entered The Open with a very long +10000 odds at Tipico Sportsbook to come out on top.
Naturally, Young went out and shot the lowest Open Championship debut round in the modern era, according to Justin Ray of Twenty First Group.
Cameron Young opens with a 64 in the first round 🔥
That is the lowest career debut round at the Open Championship in the modern era
Young’s incredible 64 (-8) obviously had him in the lead once his round wrapped, as it’s the second-lowest opening round ever in an Open at St. Andrews Links. But it also matched the lowest opening round at The Open regardless of course since Phil Mickelson shot a 63 in 2016. Louis Oosthuizen, who shot a 64 last year, is the only other player in the last 10 years with an opening round score as low.
Young’s odds to win are now down to +1000, which are much shorter but still provides awesome value. Only 10 opening-round leaders in the past 10 years failed to finish in the top six, and two ended up winning — Jordan Spieth in 2017 and Rory McIlroy in 2014. McIlroy, who finished two strokes back, remains the favorite at +425.
Gannett may earn revenue from Tipico for audience referrals to betting services. Tipico has no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. See Tipico.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ only. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO).
With four straight top 20s entering the week, can Max Homa work his way through group 8?
Can you smell that? How ’bout feel it? Yes, the first men’s major championship of the year is within shouting distance, and it’s going to be hard to wait another two weeks for the Masters.
But before the players take that special drive down Magnolia Lane, it’s time to head to Austin, Texas, for the WGC-Dell Match Play.
Several of the game’s biggest names, including Rory McIlroy, Sam Burns, and recent Players champion Cameron Smith, are not in the field this week. However, after a layoff stemming back to the Farmers Insurance Open, Bryson DeChambeau is one of the 64 names in this week’s March Madness type bracket.
Strokes Gained: Approach: Pete Dye design? It’s probably good to start with iron play.
Putting: Bermuda: There’s a reason why Kevin Kisner seems to reach the final four of this event every year. When you can consistently make putts that your opponent thinks you’re gonna miss, it’s demoralizing.
Data Golf Information
Course Fit (compares golf courses based on the degree to which different golfer attributes — such as driving distance — to predict who performs well at each course – DataGolf): 1. Harbour Town Golf Links (home of the RBC Heritage), 2. Colonial Country Club (home of the Charles Schwab), 3. Sea Island GC (Plantation)
Trending: 1. Justin Thomas (last three starts: 6, T-33, T-3), 2. Scottie Scheffler (T-7, 1, T-55), 3. Matt Fitzpatrick (T-9, MC, T-5)
Percent chance to win (based on course history, fit, trending, etc.): 1. Jon Rahm (5.1 percent), 2. Justin Thomas (4.8 percent), 3. Viktor Hovland (3.5 percent)
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Viktor Hovland – Top 10: Miss
Louis Oosthuizen – Top 20: Miss
Matthew Fitzpatrick – Top 20: Cash (+170)
Shane Lowry – Top 20: Cash (+130)
Jason Kokrak – Top 20: Miss
Russell Knox – Top 20: Miss
Kevin Kisner – Top 20: Miss
Down two units on positions plays, six units on outrights at Valspar.
Up 16.69 units on position plays, and up 31.5 units on outright plays in 2022.
[tipico]
Gannett may earn revenue from Tipico for audience referrals to betting services. Tipico has no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. See Tipico.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ only. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA).
Among all the big names, there are several sleepers to keep an eye on in Tampa.
After a wild week in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, at the Players, the PGA Tour heads to Tampa for the Valspar Championship.
Sam Burns enters the week as the defending champion and sits at +2000.
Despite a late finish at TPC Sawgrass, some of the best players in the world are still in the field to tee it up at the Copperhead Course at the Innisbrook Resort.
Justin Thomas, Viktor Hovland, and Collin Morikawa all sit at +1000 to win.
Despite numerous big names, there are several players further down the odds list that have a great chance of hoisting the hardware come Sunday afternoon (or at least we can hope it’ll be Sunday afternoon).
Gannett may earn revenue from Tipico for audience referrals to betting services. Tipico has no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. See Tipico.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ only. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA).
Can Daniel Berger rebound from a tough finish at the Honda Classic this week at TPC Sawgrass?
This week in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, there are a plethora of big-name players ready to compete for the title at the 2022 Players Championship. Jon Rahm, the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, is the favorite among them all at TPC Sawgrass sitting at +1200. Justin Thomas, the event’s defending champion, follows closely behind at +1300 with
Pete Dye’s Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass will play as a par 72 this week measuring 7,256 yards.
Among all the favorites this week in the field comprised of 46 of the world’s top-50, here are players to bet on, to fade, and to consider for your betting cards.
Can the Aussie win for the first time in over two years?
The PGA Tour is in Ponta Vedra Beach, Florida, for one of, if not the, biggest non-major of the year. The best players in the world, aside from Bryson DeChambeau who withdrew from the field Sunday due to an injury, have descended upon TPC Sawgrass for the Players Championship.
Jon Rahm, the No. 1 ranked player in the world, is the betting favorite at +1200. Rahm played in Orlando last week, eventually tying for 17th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Justin Thomas, the winner of last year’s Players, is at +1300. Thomas’ last appearance came at the Genesis Invitational where he finished solo sixth.
Despite the superstar-packed field, there are numerous players who could make a run at the title this week further down the odds list.
